Pokestuck
by xXNerezzaXx
Summary: In which sixteen kids gain their first Pokemon, start a journey, face a number of challenges and fraught the plans of a few evil gangs.
1. In which almost everyone gets a Pokemon

Aradia was perhaps the first person to wake up in New-bud town in the early hours of yet another bitter Monday morning. Although she would have much preferred to say it was from the excitement of getting her first pokemon, it was a nightmare that made her eyes flash open at 5:00am. Blinking in surprise, Aradia rubbed her jaded blue eyes before staring dazedly at her low ceiling for a while. The memory of the bad dream ebbed away quickly; all she remembered was running away from something… it was probably horrifying. With a worn out sigh, and a faintly amused smile, Aradia reached out and switched on her side lamp. It flickered, and then bathed the dark room in a warm yellow glow, revealing the contents of a cosy bedroom.

The room was medium sized, if a tad small, and strangely decorated. Where there wasn't an assortment of pokemon fossils and various pieces of excavation equipment, there was an assortment of clocks or posters depicting the legendary pokemon Dialga. Although a bit cluttered, the rest of the room was reasonably tidy. Aradia had had an infatuation with digging up pokemon fossils since she was very young, and her first ever fossil was sitting pride of place on a small shelf: a surprisingly smooth rock with a plumed feather marking just visible on its light brown surface. Aradia planned on taking it with her and extracting the pokemon from its fossil in Ash-tree town.

Yawning, Aradia flicked open her deep red blinds and squinted through the frosty window. Even in the dim light of dawn and with the lack of any streetlamps, the glittering white snow was still quite visible. And deep; everyone was snowed in.

_Doubt I'll be able to get to sleep now,_ thought Aradia sullenly and, with effort, squirmed out of her comfortable, toasty bed. Still bleary eyed, she shuffled over to her small wooden desk and slumped onto the chair, before flipping open her laptop. Hopefully someone was also online. Proffesor Scratch didn't expect them until 8'o clock and that was three hours away. With that that thought, a small squirm of excitement and anticipation fluttered in Aradia's stomach. She was getting her first pokemon in three hours!

The small laptop's screen soon lit up and Aradia instantly clicked onto pesterchum. _Anyone online…? Oh thank goodness, Feferi…_she thought happily and opened the other girls pester chum. Of course Feferi was online. She was probably too excited to sleep at all…

-apocolypseArisen [AA] began pestering cuttlefishCuller [CC] at 05:12—

AA: hey feferi!

AA: why are you up so early

CC: ARADIA! Glub glub! 38)

CC: I didn't even sleep!

CC: I was too -EXCIT—ED about getting a Pokemon!

CC: And travelling wit)( everyone!

CC: GLUB! 38D

CC: W)(at about you?

AA: oh i guess I was excited too

AA: I just randomly woke up

AA: arent you tired

CC: Not at all!

CC: In fact I feel COMPL-ET—ELY awake! Glub GLUB!

AA: oh

AA: i don't know how you manage it!

AA: im tired and ive actually had sleep

CC: T)(at will wear off soon!

CC: It does for me!

AA: i hope so

AA: you know what pokemon professor scratch has right

CC: Yep!

AA: which one has caught your eye

CC: HMM.

CC: Well, I like the look of the water pokemon of course!

CC: Squirtle and Oshawott look really cute in particular!

CC: I guess you )(ave your eye on one as well, HMM? 38)

AA: yep

AA: id like a fire type for when i go exploring in caves

AA: most fire types have some sort of visible fire on them I think

AA: cyndaquil would be nice :)

AA: so would charmander but terezi wants him 0_0

CC: Of course Terezi wants C)(armander! T)(ey evolve into the closest t)(ing we )(ave to a DRAGON START—ER! Terezi loves dragons 38D

CC: T)(ats a cool idea, anyway!

AA: thanks :)

AA: have you seen the snow yet

AA: its even worse than yesterday

CC: I know! It will be so pretty when it gets light 38O

CC: Which will hopefully be soon!

AA: yep

AA: id better go actually

AA: get dressed and stuff

CC: O)( ok 38(

CC: I'll see you later, OK?

AA: yeah

AA: bye feferi :)

CC: BY-E!

With a grin, Aradia got up from her chair and started to get dressed. Typical Feferi…she admired her ability to stay up all night though. It was something she lacked.

Steadily, she made her way through all the daily tasks: getting dressed, untangling her long brown hair, etcetera, etcetera. All the boring everyday stuff. When Aradia had finished, an hour and a half of waiting still remained, although it would take a good ten minutes to get to the professor's house. Bluh. With a small sigh, the dark-haired girl started to slowly open her creaky cottage bedroom door. Mercifully, it hardly creaked at all and Aradia made her way carefully across the rickety wooden floor. The smooth wooden floor was cold underfoot, in contrast to the warm house. She was particularly careful past her moms room; she was a light sleeper and waking her was not an option. After that ordeal, she started to hop down the rickety stairs, skipping the seventh one because it creaked, and landing with a small, dull_ whump_ on the floor. That went much better than she expected.

Aradia lived in the smallest house in New-bud town – a rather old cottage with a musty smell which was near the edge of town. Despite all the difficulties it provided, Aradia wouldn't swap it for anything else. It had a certain character to it. Downstairs was mainly open plan, the kitchen diner was right next to the lounge. A door opened up to a utility room, which then led outside to the back garden. The garden did not match the cottage in size; it was big and contained many filled in holes which were easy to spot from the darker colour of grass that had grown over it.

With a freshly made coffee, Aradia made her way into the lounge and slumped into a deep, soft armchair before switching on the TV. It was going to be a long wait for the day to fully start.

After an episode of watching some rich kid talk about pokemon natures and watching the progress of some random trainer, Aradia switched off the TV and forced herself to stand. She found herself not being able to wait any longer, what with all the terrible programs. Grabbing her bag, she walked to the front door and let out a deep breath, readying herself for the cold. Aradia swung the door open to reveal a frosty day and a clear blue sky. Snow was almost waist height now, and she wrapped her maroon jacket around her with a small shiver. The door had revealed a small patch of ground, but from then on was snow. It covered what was a boring town. There was literarily nothing but grass, bushes, ponds and houses. Cars were not spoken of. They were either extinct or had never actually made their way to the isolated town.

With a deep breath, Aradia stepped into the freezing cold snow and started to carve a path with her ultra-thick black gloves. The snow was almost blinding combined with the cold white sun and the biting cold was getting through her many layers. Shuddering, she pulled her scarf over her mouth before continuing on. Although Aradia couldn't wait to get into the professor's lab, Feferi was right. Everything was hauntingly beautiful: the pine trees were glittering with frost and even bird pokemon weren't singing.

After five minutes of carving through snow, Aradia's hands and toes were horribly numb. She had passed Jade's house, who had left, John's house, who hadn't left yet, Kanaya's house, who had left, and now Karkat's house…there was no movement in Karkat's house at all, and no-one had left yet. He was going to be late, and somehow that didn't surprise Aradia at all. Rolling her eyes, she balled some snow into a terrible snowball and launched it with surprisingly good aim at Karkat's bedroom window. Three times in a row. As she was about to throw a fourth one, the small window was rammed open and Karkat's furious face appeared. "Aradia what the FUCK! That was NOT funny and-" Karkat started to rage before being cut off by his attacker.

"Karkat it's 8 o clock." Aradia smiled up at him. Karkat's expression turned from pure anger to shock in a heartbeat.

"Well shit."

"I would hurry up, or you might get the leftover. Sollux would never let you live it down."

Karkat didn't bother answering and slammed his window shut. A stream of muffled swear words followed him. Rolling her eyes yet again, Aradia retrieved her numb hands into her pockets and turned to start snow gouging again. Sollux had said Karkat wanted Tepig, but Nepeta had her eye on that pokemon as well. If he didn't hurry up, it would be way too late.

To her delight, no more snow carving was necessary after just half a minute – a path was carved through the snow already. No more snow carving! With a happy, tired smile, Aradia stepped into the somewhat recent path, and started to walk normally again, getting nearer and nearer to Scratch's lab.

_Minutes in the past…_

_Whump. _

What the fuck.

_Whump._

Five more minutes.

_WHUMP._

"I'm coming for fucks sake!" growled a particularly annoyed Karkat as he threw off his covers and stomped to his tiny window. Stupid goddamn kids…or John. Probably John, he had a stupidly good aim. Still muttering, Karkat forced his window open and leaned out to see…Aradia? The fuck was she doing up. And throwing snowballs at his window. It wasn't her kind of thing.

"Aradia what the FUCK! That was NOT funny and-" Karkat unnecessarily shouted down to her before being rudely cut off.

""Karkat it's almost 8 o clock." Aradia smiled smugly up at him.

Oh. _Oh._

"Well shit," muttered Karkat, amazed at the fact that it was actually Monday. Without replying to Aradia, whatever she had said, Karkat retreated into his room and slammed his window. The rest of the time in his house was a blur for him: a lot of swearing, a lot of clothes being thrown around and a lot of tugging at his messy mane of black hair. He was going to be late and the last one there, unless Gamzee had spaced out.

But as Karkat ran out of his small house and through the paths already made by other people, he realised even Gamzee had left before him. "Shit, shit, shit, shit..." snarled Karkat as he checked his watch. 8:12. The professor was probably already lecturing everyone on stuff they already knew. And his friends were probably all picking their pokemon already.

Why was everything a fucking disaster all the time?

Tavros had decided to leave his house at 7:40am when his over-protective father had doubts about him going on a massive journey. The short, portly man had been fussing over him since early morning, and Tavros had finally left home to get his first pokemon. Excitement, fear and anticipation had gripped his body as he started to push through the snow. After a while, he came to Feferi's massive house. A path through the snow was visible, an escape from the cold snow which was biting deep into his toes. Feferi had already left her home, no surprises there. Tavros carved his way into her path. He liked the snow, but not when it was this height. Shuddering from the wet and cold, Tavros picked up his pace. Out of everyone, he was furthest from Scratch's laboratory, and he had no intention of being late.

After a long while of walking, Tavros was surprised to find himself standing outside the pure white building that blended in so well with the surrounding snow. With a shuddering deep breath, Tavros opened the laboratory door that stood before him and stepped in, taking in his surroundings with awe.

The most prominent thing about the wide, square shaped room was the fact that it was pretty much all white – even all the beeping machines. This brought attention to a long machine that held sixteen pokeballs, which were far more interesting than their surroundings. Grinning in excitement, Tavros closed the door and looked around the room for any of his friends that had shown up.

Rose, Kanaya and John were talking happily in a corner, Dave was being bothered by Terezi, Nepeta was hopping up and down in front of Equius, Feferi and Jade were sitting down with Eridan and chatting excitedly. Well, Eridan didn't join in much but that wasn't surprising. Aradia and Sollux were also chatting, but Aradia looked up at the sound of a door closing and waved enthusiastically at him. With a nervous smile, Tavros waved back before walking over to Jade. Just as she noticed him and started to smile widely, a familiar voice appeared from nowhere.

"Tavrooos!" grinned Vriska as she appeared from nowhere and spun the startled boy around.

"Uh, hi Vriska," stammered Tavros, relaxing slightly at his friend's somewhat wicked smile.

"So what pokemon are you getting, hmm? I'll make sure you get it, for as long as it isn't a wimp pokemon!" Vriska gushed, leading him away from a disgruntled Jade. "And it can't be the on I'm going to bag myself either!"

"Uhh, well-" Tavros murmured, coursing his fingers through his dark brown Mohawk. But then he was cut off by an indescribable voice.

"Are you all here, then?" Prof Scratch had appeared out of nowhere, rather like Vriska. He was a man that looked like he should be tall, but was quite short. He wore a simple green shirt with a simple white jacket and simple white trousers.

"Karkat and Gamzee are still to arrive, I believe," Kanaya's calm voice sprung from the gathering throng of approaching people.

"Well, we may as well sta-" Scratch started to say, but then was cut off by the sound of a door opening.

"It was motherfucking cold outside, wasn't it?" Gamzee smiled dazedly as he slouched over to the group. "Sorry I'm late, I got distracted by this pokemon, it was all motherfucking staring at me."

Tavros smiled welcomingly to his best friend and, upon spotting him, Gamzee's grin became even bigger. He started to move over to him, much to Vriska's annoyance.

"It is fine Gamzee, we have just Karkat to wait for now." Scratch said evenly and then continued. "You all know me by Professor Scratch, I study pokemon and-"

"Yeah, yeah! We know what you do, just let us get a pokemon already!" Vriska called out. Tavros nudged Vriska in the ribs with his elbow, slightly embarrassed by her. Vriska responded with a low snort as Doc Scratch ignored her remark, but also put aside the introductions.

"I believe all of you know what a pokemon is? Good, you can now pick one from the selection I have behind me. Settle your choices politely, please. I'm afraid Karkat will have to have the remaining one" Scratch stepped to the side.

Vriska grabbed onto Tavros's arm and dragged him along with the tidal wave of excited people. He blinked in panic as Vriska guided him towards the Sinnoh region's pokemon – not where he wanted to go. His friend reached out greedily and grabbed the pokeball neatly labelled 'Chimchar'.

"Now, which one do you want?" Vriska asked loudly over the voices of everyone else.

"Torchic…" whispered Tavros, in a daze from the noise and the suddenness everything. He was extremely surprised when Vriska actually heard him. Tossing her spiky black hair from her face, she shoved aside Eridan, who yelped after her in annoyance, and pulled Tavros beside her.

"Go on then, take it!" Vriska encouraged as he started to shakily reach out to the pokeball. This was it, his first pokemon…and then his fingers clamped around the spherical contraption. He didn't have much time to think about this, as Vriska dragged him back through the crowd, looking strangely exhilarated.

"At least you got a fire type! I thought you would get a stupid grass type, Torchic is pretty damn awesome when it evolves!" she nudged him in the ribs. Hard. Tavros grinned awkwardly as he rubbed his side. And then it hit him: in his hand was a real life pokemon! HIS pokemon…

And then, Karkat was standing there, right beside him looking exhausted and absolutely furious. "I have NOT just missed the grand Pokemon picking!" he roared.


	2. In which everyone gets into a group

**Thanks so much for any reviews, I never expected my silly crossover to get any attention at all. :') Also, if anyone has ideas for pokemon teams for anyone, I'm all ears.**

Sollux had to refrain himself from laughing openly at Karkat as he made an impressively terrible entrance. He was almost twenty minutes late, no surprises there, and had almost killed Tavros when he arrived at his shoulder, bawling to everyone in his loudest voice. Glancing at the remaining pokeball made Sollux smirk that little bit harder; Karkat was going to go through the roof when he found out what was left. When his rival started to talk with Prof. Scratch, Sollux turned back to Aradia, who he was practicing the art of speaking with a minute earlier.

Gripped firmly in his hand was a pokeball, which contained a Treecko. Treecko was obviously the best starter. The Sburban region actually had no set starter Pokemon, mainly because there were no unique, native Pokemon there. It was just a jumble of all the Pokemon from other regions. But Prof. Scratch also wanted to keep people guessing, apparently. Last year's trainers had either a Feebas or a Magikarp.

"I knew Karkat wouldn't get up early enough," Sollux said smugly in his usual lisp, examining Aradia's half guilty, half amused expression. "I _knew_ it."

"He wouldn't get up at all if I didn't wake him up," Aradia murmured, apparently transfixed by Karkat. "I had to throw three whole snowballs at his window before he woke up."

"Aw, you're joking? I would have loved to see that. Why didn't you just leave him?" Sollux smiled faintly, imagining Karkat's expression when he realised he had messed up, yet again.

"Because I, unlike you, have an emotion called 'compassion'," Aradia smiled lightly, still looking at Karkat, before Sollux snorted and shoved her shoulder. She staggered slightly, surprised for a few seconds, but then turned on him with a grin.

"Oh, don't play that game with me, Captor; I'll set Cyndaquil on you! Actually, I'll call him Dean."

"Dean? You have not named your Cyndaquil DEAN…"

"Oh but I have. Let's see if he agrees with it, hmm?" Aradia beamed as she tossed out her pokeball. With the normal flash of light, an excited Cyndaquil materialized, bouncing up and down happily and squealing his name. Unlike other Cyndaquil, this one had maroon back fur. Sollux wondered if this was some kind of sick joke for Prof. Scratch.

"Hello there, is Dean ok with you?" she asked, eyeing her Pokemon happily.

"Quiiiil!" he cried out, grinning at his new trainer in seeming acceptance.

"Scared yet?" Aradia turned to Sollux with a teasing grin as Dean continued to grin wildly and jump about.

"So you want to lose your first battle? Ok," Sollux responded coolly, tossing out his pokeball and releasing a bored-looking Treecko. All the stupid flashing lights would probably give him a migraine.

"Ohohoho, I'll make you bite those words," Aradia murmured under her breath.

"So," Sollux stared at his Treecko who eyed him back, summing up his new trainer. Like Dean, the Treecko had strange colours. In his case, his usually dark green tail was murky yellow. "You're good with just Treecko?"

In response, the lizard-like Pokemon looked quite disgusted and muttered something which made Dean look quite offended.

"Ok, if this is a battle, use-" Sollux started to look up and get into the fight, fists clenched and a smile etched into his tanned face. But he was then cut off by Aradia. How fucking rude.

"Dean! Use leer…! While going in for a tackle!" she faltered slightly, obviously thinking fast on what to do. Dean responded with a shrill battle-cry and flared up his back, before charging forwards, starting to frown and get more serious. Somehow, he locked gazes with Treecko and looked positively terrifying, despite having no visible eyes and being as cute as any other starter Pokemon. Treecko, however, was made of stronger stuff than that. He easily bounded quickly to the side and left Dean skidding across the pristine white floor with a small cry. Time to get this battle started, thought Sollux with a grin.

"Treecko, use pound!" he called to Treecko who responded with a grunt. He remembered hearing that Treecko could use pound at a low level of training on some TV program. The green lizard-like Pokemon narrowed his bright yellow eyes and leaped towards Dean, who had stopped skidding and had jerkily looked up to the oncoming figure with a just audible murmur or 'cyyyn…'.

"Dean, quick, use tackle!" Aradia intervened, stepping forwards with her fists clenched and a wide smile brightening up her face. Dean frowned and, with his stubby back legs, jumped up to meet Treecko with a surprisingly strong tackle. The Cyndaquil slammed into Treecko's chest with a 'whump', which was shortly followed by an annoyed, pained grunt as the two pokemon tore through the air. Sollux frowned and flicked his messy black fringe from his mismatched eyes in a single jagged movement. How could something with stupidly short legs jump so far? Two answers sprung to his mind: miracles and science. Both ideas came from two complete idiots and he pushed the thought from his head as both Dean and Treecko hit the ground. Flinching, Sollux let out a low, "Well, fuck…" as both Pokemon staggered to shaky feet and steadied themselves.

"Finish him with tackle!" cried out Aradia, a bit rattled at Dean's battered form.

"Take him on with pound!" countered Sollux, trying to ignore both Pokémon's struggles. With a faint cry, Dean started to charge towards Treecko who stood his ground. Unexpectedly, the charging Cyndaquil suddenly jumped to the side of Treecko, skidding slightly on the smooth floor, and tackled him from there with a small grunt. Surprised, Treecko let out a low growl of pain as Dean slammed into him in a blur of red and cream. Before they both hit that hard ground, Dean weakly jumped off and half landed, half collapsed onto the floor, leaving Treecko in an unmoving heap. As Aradia vigorously punched the air and let out a long "Yessss!", Sollux jogged towards Treecko and poked his shoulder.

"You ok?" he asked roughly, frowning at his Pokemon. Treecko looked up, looking highly embarrassed, and shoved away Sollux's hand, making him smile faintly.

"Hey, fuckass, you got beat by a girl!" came a horribly smug voice which could only come from one person.

"Fuck off Karkat," Sollux replied blandly, looking up to see him standing there like the jerk he was. "Got over your new pokemon then?"

Karkat's face instantly fell and he started scowling. Despite himself, Sollux started to smile smugly himself. He had obviously gained the upper hand. As he staggered to his feet, Sollux realised that their battle had attracted the others. Ugh. He fucking hated crowds.

Dave slouched against one of Prof. Scratch's strange, white machines, watching Sollux get owned by Aradia with a faint smile. One of the few things that he and Karkat agreed on was that Sollux was an ass and watching him get beaten was wonderful. This was ruined somewhat when someone's hot breath sent a shiver down his spine as it swarmed around his neck. If Dave had not known Terezi for all his life, this would be alarming and he would lose his cool. "'Sup," he said simply, watching as Karkat stormed away from Sollux.

"Hey cool kid," breathed Terezi, obviously withdrawing her abnormally long tongue. "We should battle as well. I get all the money in your pockets if I win. You get all the money in my pockets if you win."

Dave could imagine her now, grinning like an idiot and wearing some eye-rape clothing. "You have no money," he replied simply. Terezi was as readable as a book.

"Don't miss a trick, do you? Not like Vriska," cackled Terezi as Dave turned around, resisting the urge to roll his eyes. She was wearing neon bright colours which would make his eyes water without shades and was grinning wildly. Just as of course she was wearing those stupid red glasses.

"We should battle anyway. Inspector Orangeclaw will destroy your pathetic Snivy!" Terezi continued, starting to grin even wider than usual.

"His name's Fluffy," responded Dave.

"Is that for irony?"

"No."

Terezi frowned at that. "I know its irony! You stink of it," she squinted, staring through his shades.

"You know me too well," Dave smirked, glancing away from the red eyes which were basically the same as his.

"So what about the battle? I'm serious!" Terezi leaned forwards, smiling manically again.

"Chill Terezi, we'll battle later. Fluffy needs training," Dave shrugged off Terezi's oncoming figure and whisked out the solitary pokeball from his belt. "Does Scratch want anything else or can we go?"

"We still need Pokedexs," Terezi responded, obviously annoyed at Dave's refusal to fight.

"Oh," Dave muttered, wondering why anyone needed Pokedexs anyway.

Equius found himself exasperated, once again, as his long time friend started charging at him with her newly gained Tepig. Again. And, once again, he simply reached a hand out to stop Nepeta's head from crashing into him and doing herself an injury. With a growling sound, Nepeta whacked her head into Equius' outstretched hand and yelped. Her Tepig, who she had fondly named Sir Francis Bacon, had closed his eyes and ran right past Equius, making snorting and squealing sounds.

"Grrrr, you're no fun!" she pouted, stepping backwards and rubbing her head through her skitty hat.

"Nepeta, you will cease this foolishness," Equius said firmly, dropping his arm back to its original position by his side. "Try to be composed. Just for while we are in Professor Scratch's lab at least."

"This isn't a formal occasion though…!" Nepeta exclaimed, frowning at Equius' stern face.

"Yes it is. Now, please," he growled as Prof. Scratch walked purposefully towards them. "Act…controlled."

"Hello, Equius, Nepeta," said Prof. Scratch, a good foot smaller than Equius who tried his best to not look down on him.

"The same to you, Professor." Replied Equius respectfully, starting to build up a sweat. Nepeta just smiled widely at the Professor.

"Now," he smiled lightly, handing over a Pokedex to both new trainers. "Pokedexs record Pokémon's data when they scan them. They are highly useful."

Nepeta took hers and instantly started examining every single bit of it.

"Thank you Professor," Equius said formally, nudging Nepeta meaningfully. Where were her manners?

"Yeah, thanks!" grinned Nepeta, much to Equius' despair.

"Here are some Pokeballs to help you on your way," the Professor continued, handing over three Pokeballs each. One of Nepeta's was a Quickball. "Nepeta, I am afraid I ran out of normal Pokeballs. A Quickball is most powerful when you try to catch a Pokemon as soon as you see it. It gets weaker as it goes through the battle."

"Cool!" Nepeta squeaked, shoving all of the Pokeballs into the pouches on her belt.

Prof. Scratch nodded in return and moved over to John, Vriska and Tavros.

"Alright, nooksuckers, get over here! This is important!" shouted Karkat, who was standing in the middle of the room. Equius sighed as Nepeta's smile became wider an she jogged towards Karkat eagerly. He felt like a brother to her, and it was plain to the eye that she had a huge crush on him. Equius had no idea why, Karkat always seemed so insolent despite his social status. He walked over anyway and stood next to Nepeta as the last people meandered over.

"Right, me and this Fuckass have a plan!" Karkat growled, motioning to John who smiled goofily. 'Fuckass' was affectionate for Karkat. "Because were friends, were going to travel in groups. Hopefully, three groups will come out of this mess."

Silence met his words, although one or two people looked surprised. Equius, for one, had expected Karkat to insist on going alone.

"Umm, can we, get to choose who we can go with?" Tavros stammered, biting his lip after speaking. Vriska scoffed at this.

"If Karkat tries to control that, I'm completely out," she said heatedly.

"Yeah, yeah, Shitstain, you can go with who you want but we should travel in three groups! Travelling all together would make me shove a knife down my protein chute!" Karkat snapped back, looking around. "So get into groups. Now."

The next few minutes was a confusion of arguing, fussing and movement for Equius. After a lot of barbed insults from Karkat, and a few disagreements, he found himself standing next to Nepeta, Feferi, Tavros and Jade. Dave, John, Karkat, Aradia, Sollux and Terezi were in another team, and Rose, Kanaya, Vriska, Eridan and Gamzee were in the last team.

"Right, you'll be travelling around in these teams for fuck knows how long," Karkat snarled over the chatter. "Everyone happy? Great, do whatever you want. My team, go say your heart-warming goodbyes to your family and meet at the exit out of this shithole. Got it?"

Equius turned to Nepeta who looked happy but slightly disappointed. Before he could ask what was wrong, Rose started to speak.

"Ok, the same as what Karkat said," she said calmly, clearly happy with the team she was travelling with. Soon, everyone had left the shiny white building and were walking back home in small groups. Equius walked back with Vriska who never seemed to shut up. It was going to be a long walk back.


	3. In which everyone gets ready to go

Jade was somewhat reluctant to leave the warm clutches of Prof. Scratch's lab; she knew of the horrible conditions outside. But even then she was shocked by the achingly cold wind that welcomed her when she stepped out into the bright morning. On top of that, the blinding light which was reflected from the snow made her squeak slightly and bump into Karkat who responded in his typical fashion: being a grumpy ass. "Get. The. Fuck. Out. Of. My. Way." he grumbled darkly, rubbing his eyes and striding past her. She had no idea what his problem was, especially since today was one of the most exciting days of their lives! She made sure Karkat heard her over exaggerated huff before trundling happily along, trying to ignore the after-shock of the bright sun. Even though she normally liked Karkat and his strange quirks, he really could be annoying sometimes.

There was no rush to get back, although she was eager to get going and catch some new friends. Her house wasn't far from Prof. Scratch's lab and it was near the exit of the town, so lots of people would take longer than her. Especially since she had no-one to say goodbye to; her grandpa was exploring the region, but she would probably see him along the way. Probably: you really never could know with him. However, she still had to go home. Unlike everyone else, she already had a Pokemon: Bec the Manectric was waiting for her return! He was such a great Pokemon and was probably waiting for her now. Good Manectric. Best friend.

Although summer was probably her favourite season, Jade had always loved winter in a different way; the cold had never bothered her and she loved the way everything looked in the frost or snow. And as she left her house with Bec for the last time for a long while, she realised how beautiful winter was this year. Most of the trees were completely bare, and their black branches looked like fingers, reaching up to the sky and begging for spring to arrive. Although this particular day held no mist, many other days had done, and when every aspect came together with the glittering fog, it was perfect in her eyes. However, it also made it hard to see Bec, who was an albino Manectric, when she took him out for walks.

Jade continued through the steadily retreating snow, slowly getting used to the bitter cold that had bitten her to the bone. Humming loudly, she peered into each house she passed to see if anyone was leaving yet. John seemed to be assertively declining a batch of his Dad's cooking, which wasn't surprising. Mr. Egbert was such a great cook, but John seemed to be offended by it or something. Karkat was just stepping out of his house, a disgruntled look on his face, when Jade passed. His Dad stepped out after him, towering over his son with a casually bored look on his face.

"Don't kill yourself, kid," he grumbled in a voice not so different from Karkat's.

"Dad, this journey isn't dangerous," Karkat groaned, looking back at Mr. Vantas. "It's fucking _adorable_."

"Yeah, whatever you say. See ya around kid," he replied with what Jade interpreted as an awkward wave. The door was slammed shut.

"This is it Karkat! What you've been waiting for, right?" she beamed as Karkat slouched forwards.

"Yeah, and now it's here, it seems like a fucking waste of time," he responded with a shrug, kicking some hard, muddy snow from his path.

Jade's brow furrowed in frustration at that. _Why was he so difficult all the time?_

"For God's sake Karkat, what is wrong? One minute you're acting like this is your big escape, and the next-"

"Jade. Jade, you should know me by now: I'm a fucking asshole, get that through your thick skull," he growled in a matter-of-factly voice, boring a hole into the ground with his glare.

There was a short pause in which Jade simply stopped walking for a moment and Karkat sauntered onwards.

"Why do I put up with your bullshit?" she sighed after a moment, jogging after the ongoing figure and rolling her stormy green eyes.

"No idea. I wouldn't," replied the dark-haired boy, looking back at her with an honest shrug.

"And always remember, I am so_ proud of you_, son."

"Yeah, I know Dad! I'll see you around, ok?"

"Of course, John."

"Bye Dad!"

A small, tinkling bell sound came from behind John, closely followed by the closing of a door. It took a couple of seconds for everything to come together for him. They were leaving now! It was what they had been waiting for, what even _Karkat _had been waiting for. He felt, for a fleeting moment, like Feferi did at a time like this. Grinning, John span around to face his home and his father's bakery for the last time in a long while. He flicked his fringe of messy black hair from his eyes, and looked his former abode up and down. The smooth white walls had half-melted snow slowly sliding down them. They were crying over his sudden departure! It all made sense. Everything apart from the bakery, that was, which radiated manly pride, in a non-manly way. Dave would call it irony, that a bakery would give a sense of manliness. John called it a success: something he wanted. With a bitter-sweet sigh, he turned slowly on the spot before strolling forwards, watching his misty breath billow out in front of him. In the distance, two figures were also walking: one was Karkat by the sound of it. Shivering slightly from the cold, John launched a kick at a hard-packed piece of muddied snow in his path, making it crack open. Of course, no-one near him was ready yet, and each of his friend's houses he passed was either empty or filled with the voices of last good-byes.

"Bluh," murmured John as he walked steadily along, searching his warm pockets for his trusty C-gear. Already, it was installed with pesterChum so that he could easily contact his friends in times of boredom. When he checked it, it soon became clear no-one was online. Understandable, but annoying. Groaning slightly, John stuffed the blue machine into his pocket again and examined his surroundings. Snow and ice: snow and ice everywhere. The torture of waiting was terrible.

When John arrived, only Karkat and Jade were there, bickering about something. Shortly after, Dave and Sollux came up, much to Karkat's annoyance and despair, and then the others slowly came filing towards the meeting point. The meeting point was the exit to New-bud town, an underwhelming gap in the lining of pine trees that bordered the town. It was muddy, covered in a sludgy snow and mud mixture from the people that wisely decided to leave New-bud town as quickly as possible.

After finding himself joining Dave and Terezi in a discussion of irony and Dave's cherry red socks, Karkat started to shout to the congregation. "Right, get in your groups!" he called, trying in vain to order everyone from his perch on a treestump.

"Karkles, this idea is stupid! What if I want to badger Vriska, or chat with someone else? This is discrimination!"

At that, there was a few agreeing mumbles. Karkat groaned, cradling his face in a recognisable face-palm.

"Are you saying you want to travel all together? Are you insane? Wait, don't answer that, I already know you are."

"Maybe we should go with whoever we want to, and then meet in a certain area to sleep for the night! Your idea was good, Crab-catch, but not for such a BIG group of people," Feferi suggested, obviously restless to go already. A wave of 'yeah's followed that, and everyone grouped together again, discussing where they wanted to go in the affectionately named 'Route 1'. Karkat ran his fingers down his face, staring at everyone mutinously. John laughed slightly, before looking around for Vriska, whom he had not seen all day.

"Stop being a misery guts! We're about to go on an exciting adventure for cod's sake!" Feferi pouted, swivelling Eridan around from his sulking position. "We can even go together now the group's idea has changed."

"Fef, I am not in the mood for being cheered up," mumbled Eridan in, what Feferi called his sulking voice. "Look at my fuckin' first Pokemon. How will I get by with this."

At the tall boy's feet was a sad-looking Mudkip, which let out a feeble cry of "Kip…", before burying itself further into the mud.

"Eridan, Mudkip's are great Pokemon! Stop complaining, it's making your poor Pokemon sad." Feferi persisted, giving Eridan 'the look', which made him look away.

"Now, I promised Aradia and Jade I'd go with them around Route 1, so I'll see you later, mmm'kay?"

Giving a quick smile to Eridan, she bounded over to Jade and Aradia, who were waiting not so long away. Some people were already leaving; John and Vriska had already left. This is it, thought Feferi excitedly as she greeted her two friends. Our Pokemon journey!


End file.
